The blog of Richard Thompson, caricaturist, creator of "Cul de Sac," and winner of the 2011 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

First Cul de Sacs


This is the first Cul de Sac, which appeared in the Post Magazine on February 8, 2004.
This is the second.
This is the rough for the third, which I'd planned to be the first (note paste-overs).
And here's the third.
More TK, as us print journalists say.

11 comments:

Matt said...

Those were great. Why does Alice somehow look older? Is she the female version of Benjamin Button?

Michael Devers said...

The winters cap was an inspired addition from the rough to the final.

Bear said...

Thanks for those great looks at the early strip and double-secret-super thanks for continuing to post the embiggified versions. Having those to look at is like an illustration class. Any chance of showing your coloring techniques?

Kid Shay said...

Introducing characters in a new strip is always so difficult for me. I like the narration, it's funny and it sets up the premise well. Do you think it's okay to have Alice narrate at the beginning of the strip if she's not going to narrate anymore after that?

angryparsnip said...

AHHHHHh I kinda' like the Mom's car color, thinking of painting a wall that color.

The first strip I saw was on page 56 of your book. I was hooked instantly !
Still think It was a giant chicken !

richardcthompson said...

Matt, I think she's got MIckey Mouse syndrome. Sufferers get progressively cuter (I should do a graph).

Michael, thanks! Parents put actual hats like that on actual children's heads, you know.

Bear, I'll post something. It's not to complicated.

Kid, it was a cheap device, and it worked ok, but I wouldn't do it too often. But it is fun!

Angryparsnip, thanks! I blame most things on giant chickens and so far it's worked.

Mike said...

The problem with those fleece court jester hats is that the people wearing them don't get the humor in "You look like a Fool in that hat!"

Jesse F said...

N.b. The finest historical account of Mickey Mouse syndrome was reprinted in RAW Vol. 2 #3 — "The Mouseum of Natural History", by the French cartoonist Francis Masse. From a teleological perspective, however, Alice's fate is just one more harbinger of Tiellard de Chardin's notorious "Nermal Omega Point".

zero hour said...

I ADORE YOU!!!!!!
Man am I jealous!
But sooo HAPPY you are doing this strip...Its a great wake up for me every day to see it in the morning paper!

morninglight mama said...

As a preschool teacher for ten years, I can proudly say that many MANY of your comic strips have been hung (by myself and my co-teacher) in our classroom-- you have an absolute perfect vision of a preschool classroom. How many 'clean out your cubbies' days have you attended?? :)

richardcthompson said...

Mike, I'm thankful they don't make them in my size. I can look like a fool without the help of any hat.

Eludication, I've seen that Raw, I think. And I remember a chart of Mickey's progressive cuteness in a Stephen Jay Gould book, but now I gotta look up the Tielhard de Chardin.

Patty! Thanks, and I hope that morning paper keeps showing up.

Morninglight, thanks, glad to hear it! And from what I can tell, "clean out your cubby days" keep on happening right through middle school (so far).